662 Journal of Agricultvre, Victoria. [10 'Nov., 1917. 



A suitable morning masli for fowls is composed of three parts by 

 measure of jJollard, one of bran, and two of green stuff (chaffed lucerne 

 for preference), mixed up with soup made from table scraps into a fine 

 crumbly condition. Skim milk will make an excellent substitute for the 

 soup. The mash should be fed into a trough made of spouting or of 

 wood. Rabbits boiled and mixed with pollard,- &c., will also provide 

 the egg-producing j^art of what is termed a balanced ration. The even- 

 ing meal, which should consist of wheat, should be fed into the litter 

 on the floor of the fowl-house. Stable manure makes an excellent litter 

 for the birds, but if this be unobtainable, straw, or even pine needles, 

 will serve the purpose. 



Fresh clean water is necessary for fowls, and should be brought 

 to the pens by spouting from a tank at the back or at one side of the 

 fowl-house. Shell grit is an aid to heavy egg production, and an ample 

 supply should be placed in each pen. A kerosene case cut down will 

 make a good grit box. A shallow box filled with ashes and a little 

 sulphur will serve as a dust bath, and will aid the fowls to rid themselves 

 of vermin. A good remedy for lice or poultry ticks is kerosene emul- 

 sion, and it is easily made as follows: — Dissolve 1 lb. of common soap in 

 1 gallon of hot water, add 2 gallons of kerosene, emulsify with garden 

 syringe when spraying, heat up mixture, and then add ten parts of 

 water to one of stock. Use with a sj)ray pump or syringe. Red oil, as 

 used by orchardists, is also excellent for this purpose, and is very easy 

 to make up, no fires being required. Whitewash, as recommended 

 by many jjoultry writers, is not as effective as spraying. 



4.— FEEDING. 



H. Simpson, Science Master. 



Vegetable and animal products used as food vary greatly in com- 

 position. They contain large numbers of chemical substances in vary- 

 ing amounts, but these are grouped together accordingly as they resemble 

 each other in their properties, or according to their values as foods. Thus 

 we get the ordinary divisions of foods into carbohydrates, fats, and 

 proteins or albuminoids. The fats and carbohydrates contain carbon, 

 oxygen, hydrogen; while the proteins contain these in addition to nitro- 

 gen, as well as traces of other chemical substances, such as phosphorus. If 

 animal flesh, on the other hand, be analyzed, it is found to consist also 

 of these. As difl^erent foods are given to our animals either to build 

 them up, as in beef cattle, or to enable them to give us various products, 

 such as eggs, milk, or wool, it follows that all of these must be manu- 

 factured in the body solely from the food which is taken in. The chief 

 function of food is to support bodily activity. This depends entirely on 

 the fact that most chemical substances combine with oxygen, and the 

 substance of each body cell is no exception to this general action, and 

 to this all the activity of life is due. The cell-substance of the body 

 is continuously being changed chemically, by oxj'gen taken in through 

 the lungs, and thence by the blood stream to these cells. Heat is pro- 

 duced as in any other chemical action, and some of this is changed into 

 motor energy, which is directed into various channels, the remainder 

 serving to keep the body up to a set temperature. But there are other 

 important functions of food; it can be stored up in the animal body 



